Understanding NLP Therapy 101

NLP Therapy, better know as neurolinguistic programming therapy has actually been around for thousands of years, the term was coined not to recently in the late 70’s early 80’s and many people believe it to be a new form of psychotherapy, however it has been used since the Roman era a few thousand years ago and probably longer than that.  NLP Therapy as an alternative solution to help people overcome the situation that they currently reside in.  It is criticizes and many professionals do not believe in it.  However, if you research and truly understand how it works and what it is you will see that many of the most successful people that have ever walked the earth used NLP therapy.  We will also begin to understand that the majority of religions that exist use neurolinguistic programming in one form or another.

Very basically neurolinguistic programming is a term for reprograming your beliefs.  By choosing certain thoughts and words you can actually reprogram the way that you think.  No way, one might say, however it is true and scientifically documented.  In a little bit more detail the explanation will sound something like this.  The way we think is programmed in our minds.  Many people might see it like this.  Think about your life.  Did you see the world differently at the age of 20yrs. as opposed to 15yrs.?  Did you see the world different at the age of 30 as opposed to 25?  How about 40 as opposed to 30?  What happens during this time?   We have experiences and from those experiences we develop emotions that program our brain.  Many people see marriage different at 30 as they did when they were 20.  Many people see themselves different at different ages also.  All these emotional events reprogram our minds so when see something that evokes memories our thoughts will remind us of that event.  It is almost like a big spider web of thoughts.  Something reminds us of an event and our memory will remind us of that event.

Well, to go even deeper these thoughts also define who we are.  For example, a teacher that told a student he was horrible at math and was always going to be a failure.  This can be a very, very emotional event to this child.  The more emotional a thought, the more power it has.  So, 30 years after this event this child, now grown still believes he is a failure at math.  The truth is that this person was never bad at math he just believed he was.  This individual can also begin to reprogram this belief.  Every time he has the thought come up that says ‘I am horrible at math.’ he must re word it to say ‘I am amazing at math.’ and put some emotion behind the thought and word.  After, some repetition of this belief he will begin to believe that thought and will become it.  

We learn and remember 2 different ways: Repetition and Emotions.  Mainly emotionally, but the repetition will produce emotions.  Here is an example, remember cramming for a test the night before and just repeating everything until it was memorized.  How many times have you sang you favorite song in your head?  How easy is it to recall?  This is an example of repetition memorization.  Now, do you remember the person you first kissed?  What was his/her name?  What did they look like?  What were they wearing?  What did they smell like?  This is an example of emotional memorization.  No to use neurolinguistic programming we have to create new beliefs and memories about ourselves to become who we want to be.

Religions have been using this all over the world for thousands of years.  The terminology may differ much, but the basis of it is very similar to NLP Therapy.